Why I ended up adopting voice messages … and why you could also
© Shutterstock / Ground Picture
Dear readers, I come in peace, ready to defend the indefensible, the ultimate abomination, the scourge of modern times: vocal messages! But beware, let's not confuse everything. I am not talking about the formidable voice message left on an answering machine – this relic of another time which should be eradicated. No, I refer to these small recordings sent to WhatsApp, Insta or Messenger, those who, for two years, has been sowing discord and annihilates the strongest friendships/love. And these are not the Three national days without smartphones which rampant until February 8 which will prevent me from saying aloud, which some do very low. What do you want, I am suffering from nomophobia!
Yes, I arrive after the battle, but what do you want, I am no longer of the last rain. Stuck between the “boomeous” camp (as they say) and generation Z, I still sail in this ruthless digital ocean.
My first confrontation with the voice message? A shock. A colleague, twelve years old, my younger, gave me one without warning. Verdict? Intolerable. Intrusive. Embarrassing. Cringas young people say. For 30 seconds of information without interest, I had to extract my headphones and upset my tranquility. An effort far too big for such ridiculous content. So I made a radical decision: dedicating this abomination to the flames of hell and excommunicating all those who would dare to inflict others.
A spontaneous momentum
No way ! Very quickly, the vocals started to multiply on my smartphone like hotcakes (in the mouth!). The trend has become viral and all messaging services are now taking up this functionality. In my avenging ire, I started to respond by adopting the same method and hoping that my interlocutors would understand the intrusion felt and stop immediately. In vain. Thread by needle, I find myself today to be less radical and to soften myself at the reception of vocals. Worse, I get a taste for doing it and, even there, I swallow my vomit of quasi-squadra acariose …
The library, undoubtedly the worst place for vocals. Not to be reproduced! © Shutterstock / Fizkes
The vocal has established itself as obvious for many reasons. Thus, it enjoys a dynamic that the SMS does not have. Listening to a vocal is embracing the mood of the transmitter or expressing its own is better targeting the tone, intention behind. It is to express joy, anger, sadness or anxiety, which the emojis tried to do elsewhere. The smileys have invasively punctuated our messages to justify, support or testify to an emotion. Las, their reading is not always obvious and, very often, the smiley is misinterpreted. How could he alone express such a palette of emotions, frankly? The vocal puts an end to the misunderstandings and allows to ignore the spelling mistakes of the interlocutors – which I vomit as much as the messages on the telephone answering machine – or to spare the abbreviations (the “tkt”, “pkoi not “,” JPP “and other grotesque shortcuts).
To each their own pace
So yes, the vocal is not always very practical. It involves giving time to the other, interrupting his frantic rhythm for him. But what is good with the vocal is that you take it when you can, especially, what the telephone call does not do for example. I actually consider the call as much more intrusive because it requires an immediate response. The vocal, on the other hand, is consumed at envy, available to the receiver. It gives the choice. If it is less reactive than the telephone call, it often has the merit of allowing a cold reaction, to return more serenely (therefore more intelligently) to a subject.
As specified in Digital Alexandre EyrièsHDR teacher-researcher in information and communication science at the University of Lorraine, “The vocal has the advantage of being able to be listened to a bit like a podcast, A posteriori, Asynchronously. Above all, we don't need the other's consent to pour out what we have to say, tell our days and our loves”.
Listening to speaking without the look of the other
The vocal has the dirty reputation of being narcissistic, egocentric, exhibitionist. All this is most certainly. Everyone likes to play speaking! Nevertheless, he invites those who practice him to express himself aloud, to unload their thoughts and, even more, to have the feeling of being listened to without suffering or the presence of his interlocutor. According to sociologist Erving Goffman, the vocal is a form of “Refusal of commitment […] a refusal of the presence of the other ”.
When we remove the presence of the other, we get out of misunderstandings, pressure, the social gaze that weighs on us. There is also a form of laziness, because the conversation involves staying attentive. It is a significant mental charge. It is difficult to evade a conversation that we started, and the vocal frees us from this kind of case of conscience
A universal language
In addition to the emotions that we welcome or expresses, the voice message transmits a level of information that SMS cannot provide. He does not omit any detail, he says much more. And if the story is too long for the receiver, it is free to read in X2. Because the goal of the vocal is to save time. We practice it free hands, we can do something else simultaneously.
We can keep our heads high, we relieve our cervical and we remain connected to the world (which the SMS does not do). But what is most beautiful in the vocal-and I think I might have managed to convince you with this ultimate argument-is that he lets express those who cannot or do not Can't write. People with osteoarthritis or illness like Parkinson can communicate with this method. For parents of young children, it is also the way to communicate with their live offspring when separated and to keep these recordings for the old days. Not bad, right?
